Last piece (so far) of the backyard furniture. 2×4 framing covered in pallet lumber. I wanted a bar/buffet cabinet to go with the rest in f the furniture I’ve built this summer for our backyard. And the bar top is reclaimed treated 1×6’s from an old deck we pulled up.

More pics of the pallet cooler box. Other than the framing the ice chest actually sits on, the box is entirely made up of pallet pieces. Ruined a couple saw blades but like the box. Last pic is of the plumbing to get the ice chest to drain thru the faucet mounted in the side. Sorry the pics are flipped. Uploading from my phone and having issues with how they’re rotated.

I haven’t posted a project in quite a while. But I’ve been real busy this summer and thought this set deserved to be seen. I’ve seen and heard some about people using pallets to build with and the wife saw some yard furniture on pinterest made from pallets. So we went and hunted up a bunch of old pallets and here’s what I come up with. Pic #1 is the main set, love seat, table and 2 chairs. Basically, just cut down pallets bolted together to form the furniture with old 2×4 fillers. Pic #2 is my personal fave. 48qt ice chest set in cab from pallet pieces my daughter and I disassembled and cut up. Pic #3, can’t hang out in the backyard without a place to put the empties! Trash can with removable top and flip up lid. And the last pic is two serving trays to carry whatever out to the coffee table. A really inexpensive yard set that has a cool, rustic look. I personally think it turned out great so far. And we’re looking to add a bar/buffet cabinet to facilitate cooking out.

Here are 3 crosses I made for friends and family. One was an Easter gift, One a graduation gift. And one for a friend. Crosses were cut with bandsaw and scrollsaw and lettering was cut out using scrollsaw.“Smith”- Paduak with Maple lettering. For my wife for Easter.“R E C” – Walnut with Maple lettering. Made for a friend to give as a thank you.“Rachel”- Hickory with Walnut lettering. For a young lady who is like a daughter to us as a gift for her college graduation this week.

Before I was born, my dad made a game board for him and my mom. I’ve heard it called Wahoo, Taterhole, Aggravation, among other names. This past Christmas, I made a new one for her to put with his. It is Maple with Lyptus track. It was just neat to put them together, made more than 40 years apart. I

This is the fifth ‘Joker Board’ I’ve made. The boards are fun but time-consuming to make because I haven’t really made any patterns for the layouts yet. These have been a way to spend “me” time in the shop on a project of my own design.

#5 is Aromatic Red Cedar and White Pine in a diamond pattern with 3 coats of lacquer.

A gift for my wife for Valentine’s. Candy machine is approx. 10” tall. Front, back, and feathers are Padauk. Arrowhead is Walnut. Center and base are Maple. Turn the arrow and cinnamon red hots fall out of the bottom of the heart into the base. There’s a hole in back for filling covered with a padauk cover that slides over the hole, twisting on a screw. Sorry no picture of the back or internal mechanism right now.

This is the fourth game board I’ve made for this game. I guess this is my obligatory LJ tumbling block, but without the cutting board.

The background design is Hickory, Walnut, and Mahogany. The playing surface is Maple with Walnut “dots” (they mark where the corners would be on a straight-sided board)

A lot of people I know play this game and there are several web sites that sell the boards in plywood or painted MDF, but they are all straight sided with 4 or 6 sides. When I wanted to make my own I had to be different and settled on a round design. Each of the 4 I’ve made so far have been unique, with different background patterns.

These are a couple of flower-shaped routed bowls I made at my wife’s request. Actually, these are the last two of a dozen made to be end of year gifts for women that she works with at various school districts she serves.

The flowers are approx. 8” across and 1 1/4” deep. I used maple on some and cherry for others, one poplar and one red oak. I inlaid walnut circles for the center of the flowers.

As with my other routed bowls, I used the CMT bowl bit and extension. I’ve gotten my money’s worth out of that kit.

This is the third of the game boards I’ve done. The design is done in Maple and Lyptus. The actual playing surface is hickory. These game boards are 28” across.

The story about this one is worth mentioning. A friend of the couple I made Board #2 http://lumberjocks.com/projects/27179 for is a director of a children’s home near here. Every year they have a large supporters and fund-raiser dinner in Dallas. They have presentations about the center’s mission and guest speakers ( This year, former Cowboys caoch Joe Avezano and SMU football coach June Jones were the speakers.). There is also a silent auction and the director asked me to make one for it. Here is the result. I had a stack of business cards with it and they all disappeared. I hope I get calls for more (fingers crossed). My fiends seem to think I will bacause a lot of people they know who were there like to play the game.

Here’s my second Easter-themed bowl. 2” tall x 7×9”. It’s Maple, Mahogany, and Bubinga. This one is actually sold already. I will deliver it tomorrow, just in time for Easter. Home made template and the CMT Bowl Bit w/ extension.

This is the next in my holiday bowls. Kind of on a theme now. Another router bowl. Cut out an MDF template with scroll saw and OSS and glued up pieces to look like a painted Easter Egg. Woods used on this one were Maple, Lyptus, and Walnut. I think it turned out nice. This is the first of several easter bowls.
Bowl is 2” tall and about 10”x 8”.Does anybody else remember doing Easter Eggs where you’d put that decorated plastic sleeve on them and dip them in hot water to make it shrink-wrap around the egg? That’s what the change in grain direction at the top and bottom of the egg reminds me of.

One more part of my shop re-work. I built this cabinet for my scroll saw (Hitachi 16”) and my benchtop drill press. The Black and Decker wouldn’t be my first choice but I scored it at a garage sale CHEAP and it does the job fairly well until I find a better one at the right price. The cabinet is 60” long x 20” deep and is on casters as most of the other cabinets in my shop. 1 drawer is for scroll saw blades and parts and the other 2 have drill bits and my forstners, as well as driver tips and holders. The 3 doors below store finishing supplies (sealer, lacquer, poly, paint, etc.) and shop-built fences for the press. It matches my workbench, my storage cabinet, and the little base cabinet my bench tools to set on when used.There is one more cabinet to finish. My router table. I hit the sale at Rockler again this weekend and picked up 2 of the T-track kits (4’ w/ knobs and bolts) to build a fence for it. I hope to finish it this week.

One more piece to the re-do of my half of our garage into my workshop. I keep spilling over into the other half but I’m trying. Right now, my wood score I brought home from storage is taking up the other half.

My new workbench doubles as an outfeed for my Delta table saw. It also houses my P/C air compressor to keep it close to hand for nailers or whatever. There’s a hose wrap made from a 2×4 on the end with the compressor. On the other end it’s blank right now except for the power strip and cord wrap, also from a 2×4. The side of the compressor is open around it and has 4 drawers. The drawer above holds all my nails for my 4 guns and the other 3 house the nail guns, sandpaper, sanding blocks, etc. The opposite side has 3 doors with open storage right now. I plan to add shelves inside as I decide what I need to keep in there. The top is 3/4 birch and 1/2” birch on top of it with a pine banding I can remove to make it easier to replace the 1/2” sacrificial top. Overall dimensions are 48’ long, 36” wide, and 36” tall on casters.(on the bench is the start of my next fun project, another Joker game board)

I’ve been really busy re-doing my entire shop space and needed to do something different. There’s still some work on my shop itself to finish, but I decided to do this for fun. With St Patrick’s Day coming up I made this bowl using a paper shamrock decoration I found in a dollar store to make a template.

The bowl is all poplar. I dug through a lot of scraps at work looking for the darkest green pieces I could. Some were even into purplish-black but I used them anyway. I glued and clamped them up and flattened the blank out using the wide-belt sander at work. I traced the shamrock onto 1/2” MDF and cut it out on the scroll saw and cleaned it up with the OSS. The bowl was routed out using a CMT bowl bit and extension in a router and rounded over with 1/4” rdius bit around the top.

I’ve gotten one coat of salad bowl finish on it so far. I’ll probably put another on tomorrow or the day after.

It’s good for a candy dish or whatever my wife wants to use it for since it was for her anyway. I’m kind of getting it into my head to make candy dishes or bowls for different holidays of the year for our house.

Hope you like it!

(Edit)- Forgot to mention: bowl is 3” tall, 2 1/4” deep and just over 13” across x 13” tall.

This one isn’t the prettiest, but it works. 2×4 Frames with 2×2 runners for the tools to slide in on. Each tool is bolted to a piece of 3/4 plywood. In the third pic, you can see the clamp racks on the end. Two openings are holding scraps and templates right now but give me room to add more tools. The last pic shows the cabinet I made to set them on to use. It fits under the left side of the table saw when not in use and will hold push sticks, my TS miter gauge, Saw blades, etc.

Here’s the first post of my Garage/Workshop Redo. I’ve built all new workshop cabinets to make my half of our two car garage usable for my projects. This one is for my routers, palm sanders and other handheld power tools as well as whatever else I can think to stuff in it. Closed it is 36” wide x 32” deep x 83”high. The center section is 16” wide and the two outer sections are 10” wide each. I plan to add draw latches on the front to hold it closed when moving it around.

This is a butcher block island i did at work. The top is 4” Maple. The legs are Red Oak columns I turned. There’s a cutout for an electrical outlet in the top and a 1” hole drilled through to just over the top of a leg. That leg is drilled with a 1” hole all the way through withan angled hole coming out under the shelf. When the island is set, the wiring is hidden behind a toe kick and the wiring run into the floor and wired into the home. Instant power for kitchen appliances!